AM Days Recap on Influencer Marketing

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FMTC’s Merchant and OPM Liaison, Larissa Feuerstein, recently had the opportunity to attend Affiliate Management Days in San Francisco. She took notes from Marty Marion’s session and a keynote panel about influencer marketing, which she was happy to share with our team. Marty Marion is the Director of Digital Marketing at iAffiliate Management and spoke about influencer/affiliate programs.

AM Days Recap on Influencer Marketing

Marty Marion: Traditional Affiliate/Influencer Programs

The first point discussed in Marty’s session was how influencers drive traffic — which is through SEO, social media, email, video and paid media. Video is worth making a special note of as it continues to grow and is a powerful tool for engaging an audience.

Influencers can be more well-known or trusted than some brands. Their audiences are huge fans of their content and tend to trust them more than a typical advertisement. Be sure to strike a balance between your own vision and allowing influencers to speak in their own voice. Give them room to produce content in a way that reflects their personal style. After all, their followers are engaged with the influencer’s personality and content. Chances are, they relate better to the influencer and can be reached more effectively in a voice they are familiar with.

Identifying influencers

When identifying influencers to work with, Marty says that quality and authentic content is key. We find ourselves constantly preaching this to advertisers at Fresh Press Media as well. Rather than allowing yourself to be blinded by stats and analytics, be sure that they are producing high quality content you’ll be proud to see your brand reflected by. Don’t use impressive stats as a reason not to truly evaluate the influencer’s content quality,

3 ways to identify influencers:

Reach

Make sure that the influencer is reaching a decent number of people. Measure this by looking at the number of unique visitors and activity across social channels.

Relevance

On top of having a sizeable reach, make sure the influencer’s content is actually relevant to your target audience. Take some time before hiring to evaluate their content quality by looking at previous posts or viewing a portfolio or media kit. Be sure the audience demographic falls within your target market.

Engagement

Engagement is very important as well. A decent number of comments, questions, reposts and social shares indicate a thriving community likely to increase exposure for your brand.

Keynote Panel – State of the Union

The panel highlighted some common problem areas with influencer marketing. At the top of the list was the lack of toolsets catered to influencers. Influencers tend to have fewer resources than affiliates and may have trouble navigating more difficult waters, such as setting up their Google Analytics. Another concern was with brands bringing influencers in and expecting them to be a savvy affiliate marketer. For influencers who are new to the affiliate space, we need to present affiliate marketing in a simplified form, with in-app communication and branding.

Compensating Influencers

Another topic discussed was how to compensate influencers. Many advertisers with a background in the affiliate space expect high-quality influencers to produce amazing content for no cost other than a small commission, which may be unrealistic. Consider offering a product giveaway or placement fee along with commissions. Keep in mind that your goals should not be the same with influencers as with your affiliate program. Within the influencer realm, there is a small subset that truly matter — so be sure to carefully research the right types that fit your brand.

Simplified Influencer Marketing at Fresh Press Media

Fresh Press Media strives to create a simplified form of influencer marketing by providing resources and an easy-to-use platform, handling payments and transactions for both advertisers and influencers. We focus on constantly finding meaningful influencers and bringing them into the Marketplace.

If you ever have any suggestions or ways you think we could make the platform easier or simpler to use, we’re open to suggestions! Feel free to leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

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